Hobbit 3 Talk

The trilogy is saved!

This flick was great. The only major misstep (besides Smaug not getting the arrow put to him in the second one) was about 20mins where there were these one on one protagonist v antagonist battles. Go back to the battlefield!

Random thoughts:

* The fluidity of the wood elf army to move out of the way and reform whenever Thranduil and Bard would move through them was incredible. Great choreography.

* Thranduil was actually a pretty cool character in these films overall.

* The arrival of Dain was great. Hell, Dain was fantastic every time he was on camera. "Sod off!"

* I really dug how the dwarves formed up in formation to receive the orc charge, and yeah, I thought it was cool when the elves jumped in. This battle was as close as we've ever gotten to Warhammer Fantasy Battles on film. I wanted more of it!

* Richard Armitage did a great job completing Thorin's arc. Again, I find this character more compelling than Aragorn. I think I liked Bard better than Aragorn. I guess I should't be comparing, but I have been and Aragorn was always a bit flat for me.

* It was an odd feeling to be pulling for these dwarves through two films, then finding them on the 'bad guy' end of things for a bit there in the middle.

* Yep, Freeman nails it. The bit with the acorn is the sort of thing that I really dig in these films. The small things.

* Legolas...not sure what I can add to this, but all his antics were forgiven because he finished off Bolg with a ... hurricanrana! Viva La Lucha!

* For being an adaptation of a kid's story, this one was easily the most graphic. Plenty of slow motion deaths and some real horrific events (I'm thinking of Smuag roasting Laketown and its aftermath as well as the orcs attacking Dale where there's really just women and children).

* Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and Radagst vs the Ring Wraiths was I nice setup for LotR, but what was even neater was how psychedelic it got. Almost like the old Bakshi flick with flashing colors, voices, etc. Just gonzo stuff. Thorin overcoming the dragon sickness was similar.

* This movie does fold very nicely into the LotR. From Frodo going out to meet Gandalf at the beginning of AUJ to Gandalf showing up at the door at the end of BoFA. Nothing lame like how the SW prequels ended (Luke keeping his last name...and hidden on his father's planet!).

I'm looking forward to seeing this one again, and likely I'll do it while it's at the theater.

As a trilogy overall, I'd still rate LotR just a bit higher, because of the huge gaff that is the second film. They really needed to go off the Hobbit book a bit more to make that film work. In the Two Towers the fellowship has been split up, so all the characters get a little face-time. In DoS, all the dwarves are together through most of the flick, so you still don't really get to know any of the others besides the fews main ones from AUJ.

If I had to rank all six at this point...hmmm...maybe:

Two Towers
Fellowship/An Unexpected Journey
Battle of Five Armies
Return of the King
Desolation of Smaug

I know it's cheating putting Fellowship and AUJ as a tie, but they're jocking at the moment. Battle of Five Armies may even move up behind Two Towers in the long run...if only it had some dwarven songs!

Mr. White wrote:
* The fluidity of the wood elf army to move out of the way and reform whenever Thranduil and Bard would move through them was incredible. Great choreography.

!

When your computer turns on and the little swirl appears behind the windows logo, do you find that well choreographed as well?


cool idea to rank the 6.

Fellowship
Return of the King
Two Towers
Desolation of Smaug
Five Armies
An Unexpected Journey

that's about right for me I think.

Black Barney wrote:

Mr. White wrote:
* The fluidity of the wood elf army to move out of the way and reform whenever Thranduil and Bard would move through them was incredible. Great choreography.

!

When your computer turns on and the little swirl appears behind the windows logo, do you find that well choreographed as well?

Ha!

C'mon, man...those weren't cgi elves when Bard walked through them in Dale.

ah, yeah that was their ONLY movement that didn't have CGI, I assumed you were talking about the rest. I liked it when they would switch on and off with their bows, CGI or no.

Thanks for your thoughts Jeff...

I can't rank them yet as I won't see part three until it's out on DVD, but to me... There are only two movies, not six... and if it's done right it may end up feeling like just one. Which is what it should do.

I suspect once they're all out on home video they'll be better received. The Hobbit really is one long movie in three parts. Even moreso than LotR trilogy was. On video people can watch them back to back so Smaug dies 10 minutes after he leaves the mountain instead of a year later.

Mr. White wrote: I enjoyed this review. Maybe because it validated my thoughts on the films, but mainly because, I didn't realize these flicks were making _more_ than LotR.

www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/12/...-is-a-mythic-marvel/

I had the opposite reaction: I thought it was a shallow, downright apologist article.

I don't use the term lighty. The way the writer frames the defense of the movie by pointing out that it's financially successful and pictures all opposition as parroting tired lines of "practiced faux-cynicism popular among online trolls" is either unlikely naïve or hopelessly insincere. He says he can't understand how any fans of the LotR films could "fail to appreciate" the Hobbit films. Perhaps it was the lack of Dolby's sound system when I watched the films on TV that made me dislike them, as he thinks it was so central to the film's experience that he had to link not once, but twice to it.

But it's not the apologism that worries me, rather it's the complete lack of insight on the film offered. Hughes is fond of making big claims in favour of the film, but he never elaborates or explains the logic behind those claims. Dissapointingly, he pushes foward the idea that "Smaug is the best depiction of a dragon to ever grace a film" in a single line before shifting gears and dedicating four whole paragraphs to talk about how important a higher frame rate was to the film. Characters and action get the same treatment. That, to me, is not quality criticism.

You know what this review reminded me of? The worst of game reviews. You know the kind, those long, poddling reviews of the latest AAA that rave about the sound and graphics being amazing while indulging in words like "high-definition" and "gunplay".

I've said it before, but I don't think they are great films. And the reasons for that are not the humour or the higher frame rate or anything like that.

A ranking:

Fellowship
Return of the King
Five armies
Desolation of Smaug

---

Two Towers
Unexpected Journey

The line separates good and bad films. The two underneath I wouldn't recommend, but have to be seen to enjoy the respective story arcs of the trilogies.

how about favorite character across the six flicks?

For me it's not even close. Theoden all the way

Favorite scene, not surprising, the charge of the Rohirrm (sp?) in RotK

MattDP wrote: A ranking:

Fellowship
Return of the King
Five armies
Desolation of Smaug

---

Two Towers
Unexpected Journey

The line separates good and bad films. The two underneath I wouldn't recommend, but have to be seen to enjoy the respective story arcs of the trilogies.

interesting ranking. I agree that Fellowship is the best, and imo by a considerable margin. Fellowship is possibly my favourite fantasy film.

I'd probably stick Two towers in second and then perhaps Desolation of Smaug. I really didn't like return of the king much.